[klh]

I am trying to scan some Fujicolor Superia X-TRA800 on my Canon 8800F. Most of the photos were taken while snorkeling in Mexico. I bought VueScan because the CanoScan software couldn't properly remove the orange mask and gave me a greenish-blue picture that came no where near the color on the Walgreen prints. For example, a sea turtle was the same greenish color as the water, but the print showed a clear brownish turtle in aqua water.

So here's my problem. When I scan trying to use the Advanced Workflow Suggestions and setting the CCD exposure and film base color, I also get washed out colors, just like with the Canoscan software.

When I set exposure, I get a value of 4.152. The CFB-red is 0.316, CFB-green is 0.386, and CFB-blue is 0.194.

The first picture is skipping the advanced workflow and simply setting the film type (I'm using Fuji REALA 100 Gen2 as an approximation). It is closer to the print. The second photo is using the advanced workflow to set exposure and fbc.

Please note that these are unedited scans.

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[tuco]

My copy of VueScan has a bunch of choices for color balance in a popup list. Try different ones and apply minor tweaks to the color settings. Are you wanting perfect color from the scan? Just get it close, save as a TIFF-DNG file and finalize the color balance in a RAW editor. I'd think you're going to want to edit them anyway for sharpest and best results.

[John Poirier]

I am trying to scan some Fujicolor Superia X-TRA800 on my Canon 8800F. Most of the photos were taken while snorkeling in Mexico. I bought VueScan because the CanoScan software couldn't properly remove the orange mask and gave me a greenish-blue picture that came no where near the color on the Walgreen prints. For example, a sea turtle was the same greenish color as the water, but the print showed a clear brownish turtle in aqua water.

So here's my problem. When I scan trying to use the Advanced Workflow Suggestions and setting the CCD exposure and film base color, I also get washed out colors, just like with the Canoscan software.

When I set exposure, I get a value of 4.152. The CFB-red is 0.316, CFB-green is 0.386, and CFB-blue is 0.194.

The first picture is skipping the advanced workflow and simply setting the film type (I'm using Fuji REALA 100 Gen2 as an approximation). It is closer to the print. The second photo is using the advanced workflow to set exposure and fbc.

Please note that these are unedited scans.

Give this a try in advanced mode:

- select generic colour negative as the film type

- select Auto Levels mode in the dropdown list at the top of the page

- set both black and white points to .01

-set exposure to 1.00 (or is it brightness??- my scanner is somewhere else, so I can't check.)

- do a prescan and tweak settings


This usually give me a reasonable starting point. Not knowing exactly what you've done with input settings, I can't make any promises though.

If the image continues to look flat you can play with the black and white points. Just jump them in substantail increments like 2.0 and see what happens. If you get it wrong your scanner will bite your head off, but that's life.

As tuco pointed out, you'll probably want to do more editing. You should set both input and output to 48 bit for better quality.

---------- Post added 08-17-10 at 10:51 PM ----------

I am trying to scan some Fujicolor Superia X-TRA800 on my Canon 8800F. Most of the photos were taken while snorkeling in Mexico. I bought VueScan because the CanoScan software couldn't properly remove the orange mask and gave me a greenish-blue picture that came no where near the color on the Walgreen prints. For example, a sea turtle was the same greenish color as the water, but the print showed a clear brownish turtle in aqua water.

So here's my problem. When I scan trying to use the Advanced Workflow Suggestions and setting the CCD exposure and film base color, I also get washed out colors, just like with the Canoscan software.

When I set exposure, I get a value of 4.152. The CFB-red is 0.316, CFB-green is 0.386, and CFB-blue is 0.194.

The first picture is skipping the advanced workflow and simply setting the film type (I'm using Fuji REALA 100 Gen2 as an approximation). It is closer to the print. The second photo is using the advanced workflow to set exposure and fbc.

Please note that these are unedited scans.

Give this a try in advanced mode:

- select generic colour negative as the film type

- select Auto Levels mode in the dropdown list at the top of the page

- set both black and white points to .01

-set exposure to 1.00 (or is it brightness??- my scanner is somewhere else, so I can't check.)

- do a prescan and tweak settings


This usually give me a reasonable starting point. Not knowing exactly what you've done with input settings, I can't make any promises though. Post your results. I'd be interested in seeing what you get although I probably can't respond until late tomorrow afternoon.

If the image continues to look flat you can play with the black and white points. Just jump them in substantail increments like 2.0 and see what happens. If you get it wrong your scanner will bite your head off, but that's life.

As tuco pointed out, you'll probably want to do more editing. You should set both input and output to 48 bit for better quality.

I see you are at the end of the film strip on the right side, as there is some light spillover that shows up as a red stain. Just move the end of the film to the end of the carrier to fix it. I usually flip the neg end-for-end. You will get better film flatness as well as getting rid of the spillover.

[klh]

My copy of VueScan has a bunch of choices for color balance in a popup list. Try different ones and apply minor tweaks to the color settings. Are you wanting perfect color from the scan? Just get it close, save as a TIFF-DNG file and finalize the color balance in a RAW editor. I'd think you're going to want to edit them anyway for sharpest and best results.

Thanks for the help. I'm not looking for perfect color, but would like the color cast to be removed. I am using the "Neutral" color balance setting. I tried "Auto Levels" and "White Balance", but since this is an underwater shot, that doesn't produce a good picture.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but it seems odd to me that I get a better looking scan using the default settings than I do with the "Advanced Work Flow" method.

And yes, I save to TIFF and edit, sharpen, etc. in Paint Shop Photo Pro.

---------- Post added 08-18-10 at 07:27 AM ----------

Give this a try in advanced mode:

- select generic colour negative as the film type

- select Auto Levels mode in the dropdown list at the top of the page

- set both black and white points to .01

-set exposure to 1.00 (or is it brightness??- my scanner is somewhere else, so I can't check.)

- do a prescan and tweak settings


This usually give me a reasonable starting point. Not knowing exactly what you've done with input settings, I can't make any promises though.

Thanks John. I'll give that a try this evening.

As tuco pointed out, you'll probably want to do more editing. You should set both input and output to 48 bit for better quality

I am using 48 bit, 2400 dpi scanning, 4-pass, then reducing by a factor of 2 to get a reasonable file size. Does that make sense?

I see you are at the end of the film strip on the right side, as there is some light spillover that shows up as a red stain. Just move the end of the film to the end of the carrier to fix it. I usually flip the neg end-for-end. You will get better film flatness as well as getting rid of the spillover.

Great tip! I noticed the bleedover, but never thought of such a simple solution.

[Nesster]

I find VueScan difficult to use... however, the 'lock film base' technique you can get a pretty good starting place:
Scanning Color Negative Film with Vuescan
Better colour neg scanning with VueScan. | Urban Motion
Flickr: Discussing VueScan lock exposure tutorial in I Shoot Film

[klh]

I find VueScan difficult to use... however, the 'lock film base' technique you can get a pretty good starting place:

Sorry, I'm not being clear. The second photo is using the "lock film base" method, and it appears that the results contain a significant color cast, while the first photo is straight out of Vuescan without locking exposure and film base color. I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong with this advanced method.